General News
30 March, 2025
In good faith
We all enjoy a little preview, a sneak peek into what's coming next.
Who doesn’t want to know if it will rain or not over the next weeks?
Who wouldn’t want to know who will win the grand final or the Melbourne Cup?
Sunday March 2 was the commemoration of the Transfiguration of Christ, when "… the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendour, talking with Jesus … a cloud appeared … A voice came from the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him'" (Lk. 9:29, 34, 35).
This is a preview of the heavenly glory of Christ, the glory from which He came and to which He returned – a preview of heaven itself.
But the Transfiguration is more than a preview.
Elsewhere in the Bible we read that our own lives are "hidden in Christ" (Col. 3:3), that we are being "transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory" (II Cor. 3:18) and that "… our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).
The Transfiguration is not just a preview of Christ’s glory as the Son of God, but a preview of the glory to be revealed in all the sons and daughters of God whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ.
But just as it’s a mistake to judge a whole film by its preview, so it’s a mistake to judge ourselves only by the glory of the Transfiguration.
Lie is more than glorious mountaintop experiences.
We must learn that there will be glory in the end for the people of God, but that suffering comes before glory for us as it did for Christ.
The events on the mountain of the Transfiguration show us what God wants to accomplish in us, but it’s the hill of Calvary that shows us how He has accomplished it.
For all of us life continues even apart from our mountaintop experiences, and just as Jesus had His path of suffering to travel, we who follow in his footsteps will have ours.
But as we travel this path of sadness the Transfiguration reminds us that all through this life God is preparing us to enter into the glory of heaven, for "… we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory" (II Cor. 3:18).
The benediction we often use in church says "… The Lord make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you …".
God’s face shines on you right now, even if you don’t see it.
He will change us into His glory in His eternal kingdom.
The Transfiguration is only a preview – the best is yet to come.